Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Details: Why yes, I'm actually using the name of a model as a post title. This hits the perfect sweet spot for me - it uses great techniques and rare colors to combine two now-classic official LEGO themes. Perhaps you have to had been young in the 1990's to appreciate this; people much older than that tend to think of both Bionicle and Rock Raiders as childish and overly-juniorized themes (on a related note, we really need to have a better summary of what "juniorization" is). A quick check of Ryan's color chart shows that most of the important colors in the Rock Raiders theme's color scheme have been discontinued - teal (Bright Bluish Green [TLG]/Dark Turquoise [BL]) was last in a new set in 2005, and the "great color change" means that we haven't seen old brown (Earth Orange [TLG]/Brown [BL]), old dark grey (Dark Grey [TLG]/Dark Gray [BL]), or old light grey (Grey [TLG]/Light Gray [BL]) in a new set since 2006. Metalized Silver [TLG]/Chrome silver [BL] hasn't exactly been a common color over the years, either, even if it hasn't been discontinued yet.

The colors aren't the only thing to love here - there are also some clever joints and details. Bionicle balljoints are used on the knees to allow two sockets to form a joint together. The same joints are also used in a more traditional (although non-geared) way on the standard Toa torso element (which I'm just now realizing hasn't actually been in a set since 2004) and with a rare black Technic axle towball connected to a Mixel socket to create a very flexible wrist on one hand. Some extra color and body is given to areas that otherwise might look spindly, thanks to the Transparent Fluorescent Green [TLG]/Trans-Neon Green [BL] 1 x 1 round plates pushed into Technic pinholes. The best detail, though, may just be the chainsaw blades coming out of the feet.

The head and tail demonstrate another technique - using clips in askew connections that are sturdy, but wouldn't be considered "legal" in an official set or LEGO Digital Designer. I think I spy a minifig hand holding that tail in place, with the end that normally connects to a minifig's arm crammed into the skeleton torso (another "illegal" but very useful connection).

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Details: While I (Dan) continue to be largely absent due to personal issues (I'm now moving to a new state again), I have still kept building and kept attending events. At one such recent event (this year's BrickFair Alabama), I was interviewed by our friends at Beyond the Brick about my Super Mario Bros.Piranha Plant. While the mechanism still doesn't run smoothly enough for me to be completely happy with it, it's worked well enough to take to shows - but I've been avoiding documenting it online until I've had a chance to make it work better (in this clip, it's already lurching along at a slower speed and sticking a little). I'd like to revise it further to fix the motion problems and to try to capture more of a world from Super Mario Bros. - perhaps with a few more moving characters.

This model debuted at last year's Maker Faire Orlando, which coincided with the 30th anniversary of the original release of Super Mario Bros. It also works out nicely that Piranha Plants were actually green back then (as compared to the red that's currently more common). Not that colors showed up on my classic Game Boy, anyway...

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